A MIDDLESBROUGH mum says she has boycotted a catalogue store because its “joke ASBOs” are no laughing matter.

Margaret McGill from Coulby Newham was shocked when she spotted the personalised Anti-Social Behaviour Order certificate in the ‘How Chav Are You?’ funpack, advertised in Studio’s catalogue.

The teaching assistant said the “novelty item” - similar to another product Studio withdrew several years ago following complaints - makes a mockery of the justice system.

“I couldn’t believe it when I turned the page over,” the 36-year-old said. “I just thought it was really, really shocking. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“I know ASBOs are seen as street cred in the worst areas but they’re meant to be a serious form of punishment.

“It devalues and trivialises what an ASBO is meant to be. I certainly won’t be buying anything from them again.”

She showed the contentious catalogue to the rest of her family, including her two teenage daughters, Louise and Josie.

They were also disgusted - so she made a complaint to Studio.

“I gave it to them and said ‘what do you think of that?’ and they were shocked,” added Margaret, who works in a South Bank school. “I didn’t air my opinion and they said ‘I can’t believe they’ve got that in there, mum’.”

The his or hers ‘How Chav Are You?’ pack also includes a slang phrase book, a chav test and instructions on how to modify your car, badly.

The item, which costs £14.99, has no age guidelines.

A spokesman for the Studio catalogue said: “This ASBO item is one piece in a pack entitled How Chav Are You? which contains various jokey chav items.

“The idea of the ASBO item is that you decide a friend should be on the receiving end of it because they have done something such as had a bad haircut.

“This in no way glorifies ASBOs, nor do we believe that it is trivialising real ASBOs.”

In 2006, Studio received a number of complaints about a similar product - a set of four ASBO notices with official-style envelopes. The line was discontinued following the complaints.

‘Don’t say chav - it’s offensive’

NEVER mind banning chav funpacks - the word chav fuels “class hatred” and should be stamped out altogether, a leading think tank has warned.

Tom Hampson of the left-wing Fabian Society reckons the derogatory term is “deeply offensive, sneering and dangerous, and shouldn’t be acceptable”.

He says: “It is deeply offensive to a largely voiceless group and, especially when used in normal middle-class conversation or on national TV, it betrays a deep and revealing level of class hatred.”

He adds that the term should be as taboo as some racist words and derogatory slang to describe gay people.